Doomsday Wonderland

'No, no... my thoughts are rushing too fast,' Lin Sanjiu thought. Based solely on Tenny Voltz's information, she couldn't immediately conclude that all pocket dimensions shared the same nature.

This was a fundamental principle of statistics: her sample size was too small. Randomly encountering two similar pocket dimensions among dozens didn't mean all of them were the same. However, there was one point she felt somewhat certain about.

The factory needed winners from this type of pocket dimension.

Among the ordinary people emerging from pocket dimensions, some winners gained special advantages in areas like influence and credibility. Based on the compiled rules, these special advantages seemed to be pocket dimension rewards that persisted even after leaving the dimension, something the factory must have calculated into their plans.

In other words, the factory orchestrators found these pocket dimension winners useful. Why else would they deliberately arrange such specific and uncommon dimensions, collecting them in one place to produce winners?

They wanted a batch of opinion leaders, even if those leaders were ordinary people.

No—wait.

What they wanted might actually be ordinary opinion leaders.

After all, with the power of the Shadow Hall and that old lady, capturing a batch of posthumans and putting them through the same process wouldn't be difficult. Yet ordinary opinion leaders seemed more appealing in their capacity to influence other ordinary people. But what could the masterminds possibly want with a group of ordinary people?

These temporarily enhanced individuals were still far less capable than typical posthumans and would soon revert to their original state. If the factory needed ordinary labor, wouldn't it be easier to just pay for it?

The more Lin Sanjiu thought, the deeper her frown grew.

Perhaps her [Keen Senses] ability was in play, but she couldn't shake the feeling that if she could figure out the masterminds' purpose, she'd know how to end the pocket dimension. She had pieced together many peripheral details, but the core and most critical fragment of the picture remained shrouded in fog.

"Ah, the scene is changing again," someone called out, snapping Lin Sanjiu out of her thoughts.

As the residential area faded completely, the hospital didn't appear. Instead, the sixth scene, the amusement park, emerged.

Under the night sky, the amusement park was bathed in patches of warm yellow light, leaving most of the paths in darkness. Only the carousel, bumper cars, and shooting stalls were illuminated.

As they realized yet another scene had been eliminated, the increasingly panicked crowd clustered around the carousel's platform like moths drawn to light. They stood or sat, too exhausted from constant vigilance to even speak.

The hospital must have been the domain of either Guan Nan or Wen Ya. Considering Wen Ya had specifically planted his narrative there, it was likely his scene. It had indeed earned him a significant boost in credibility.

That guy even went out of his way to pin the hospital on Dr. Chen... Speaking of Dr. Chen.

Lin Sanjiu froze, suddenly recalling something in her possession. She hurriedly rummaged through the hotel bag and pulled out a sheet of paper.

"What are you looking at?" Ya Rong, who had been sticking close to her, immediately asked.

Across from them, Jiang Tian, who had been dazedly sitting on a carousel horse, perked up and cast her gaze over as well.

Lin Sanjiu didn't answer. Instead, she carefully examined the paper, flipping it over to ensure she didn't miss any details. After reading it thoroughly and pondering for a moment, she asked Ya Rong, who was fidgeting with curiosity, "Do you still remember Dr. Chen's position when he died?"

Jiang Tian leaned forward. The four believers sat at the edge of the platform in two small groups, chatting idly. The other three, who had been scattered among the carousel horses, tiredly moved closer upon hearing the conversation.

"He was sitting at the desk, head lowered, with a piece of paper on the table in front of him," Lin Sanjiu said. "Doesn't that position strike you as odd? It's like he could see the paper in front of him even in the dark."

Ya Rong hesitated. "It is a bit strange..."

"This is the paper that was on his desk." Lin Sanjiu shook the paper in her hand. "When I picked it up, I immediately realized it wasn't part of his record-keeping system. It's something completely different."

"Eh?" Jiang Tian exclaimed in shock. "But we saw..."

That was right. Back then, Lin Sanjiu was fully aware that everyone's eyes were fixed on her. There wasn't enough time to examine the paper closely, nor did she want to expose its contents to the murderer. So, she deliberately placed the paper on a chair in the center of the room. While walking, she described the contents aloud, not just for the others to hear, but also to activate the effects of [The Power of Word Picture].

"I made some adjustments," she said simply, without much explanation. "Now that the effects I applied have worn off, the true message has appeared."

Unable to contain their curiosity, everyone leaned in closer to her. Jiang Tian, moving the fastest, quickly scanned the dense, tiny text on the paper and couldn't help but exclaim, "Ah!"

"Do you all remember, at the beginning of the pocket dimension, we were warned not to use other means to remember the rules? Back then, two people immediately put something away." Lin Sanjiu read from the tiny words on the paper. "One of them must have been Dr. Chen, who hid his ability. His recording ability could still function in the dark, capturing everything he observed, knew, or thought."

Jiang Tian's face turned slightly pale. "I—"

Lin Sanjiu smiled at her.

"From the moment you proposed an alliance with me, I suspected that your message might be about cooperation and coexistence." Calmly, she folded the paper and put it away. "You didn't need to secretly ally with four people individually; that would've been too obvious. You only needed two. Once two people became mouthpieces, they could naturally ally with others."

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Jiang Tian bit her lower lip so hard it turned white.

"And the second person you targeted was Dr. Chen."

Looking at the group, Lin Sanjiu continued, "Based on the records on the paper, after listening to her, Dr. Chen immediately realized she might be spreading a message. At the same time, he was inspired to propose that everyone cooperate to establish the record-keeping system.

"Do you remember? On the beach, when Dr. Chen explained the record-keeping system, he openly pointed out the possibility that he could hide a message within it. He was so forthcoming because the message wasn't his; it was Jiang Tian's. At that time, I found it odd how similar it sounded to what Jiang Tian had said earlier. He even had to point it out, lest everyone become her mouthpieces as soon as the system started.

"When the record-keeping system was in place, alliances were impossible. But later, when I noticed you didn't approach me to suggest a renewed alliance after the system collapsed, I realized something. You'd figured out that, instead of targeting individuals one by one, there was a better group of candidates—the hesitant group deliberating whether to cooperate and restart the system, led by Wen Ya."

Jiang Tian exhaled and gave a bitter smile.

"I was so anxious watching them waver back and forth between two narratives. I wanted to push them into making a decision. I'd been waiting for them to conclude that once Dr. Chen was dead, they could cooperate safely. At that point, I could easily spread the message among them. Since restarting cooperation would've been their idea, they wouldn't suspect me."

"But you didn't expect me to intervene," Lin Sanjiu said, glancing at the four believers standing silently nearby. "Dr. Chen's choice of a recording ability was excellent. Once activated, it captured all changes around him, whether or not he was in the dark. I suspect that's why he began recording as soon as we entered the third scene. Even if he couldn't see at the time, he could review the records afterward to understand what had happened in the dark."

The paper contained several lines of text: Guan Nan shouted for people to stay away from her; Guan Nan quietly walked to the left side of the room; Guan Nan turned and walked toward me; Guan Nan reached out her hand toward me.

Unfortunately, while Dr. Chen's ability could ignore the darkness, he himself couldn't. Even as the words leapt from the paper one line at a time, he couldn't see them. He remained unaware, sitting helplessly in the dark, until Guan Nan's hand touched him.

Guan Nan stood expressionlessly near the wooden horse platform, as if the matter had nothing to do with her.

"I admit, targeting you was my fault," Jiang Tian said, taking a few defensive steps back until her back pressed against a wooden horse. "I don't bear any personal grudge against you. I just wanted to win... but now that you've exposed me, I've lost."

"You don't need to explain. I won't hold a grudge against you because of this." Lin Sanjiu shook her head. "I understand better than you how pocket dimensions can drive people to turn against one another. The true culprit is the factory arranging these pocket dimensions and capturing ordinary people."

The phrase "pocket dimensions usually don't react to ordinary people," spoken by someone at some point, suddenly resurfaced in Lin Sanjiu's mind, cutting off her train of thought.

"What's wrong?" Ya Rong, quick to notice, immediately picked up on her changed expression. "What did you think of?"

"I'm so foolish," Lin Sanjiu murmured. "I kept going in circles, overthinking and tying myself in knots... This must be what they call missing the forest for the trees."

"What do you mean?"

"There's no need to obsess over the factory's ultimate goal. For now, at least. What's important is something we already know." Lin Sanjiu gestured at the people around her. "Their interest, their profit, is tied to ordinary people. Ordinary people are the resource they went to great lengths to capture. As long as ordinary people are here, their plans can continue. Under this premise, why would they create deadly pocket dimensions that cause irreparable harm to most ordinary people?"

If the factory had gone to such lengths to capture thousands of people, just to produce a handful of opinion leaders, the return on investment would be disproportionately low. Moreover, there would be no need for procedures like swapping microorganisms, injecting agents, or analyzing physical data—steps that applied to everyone. This suggested that the losers, as well as the winners, had value.

Judging by the factory's effort, it was possible that opinion leaders were merely a byproduct. What they truly needed was ordinary people—and a lot of them.

Growing increasingly excited, Lin Sanjiu said to the group, "I think all the pocket dimensions they've placed here might share one characteristic: they ensure the largest number of ordinary people can leave safely."

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